Regarding Spam

I noticed that several of you are questioning whether or not anything is being done to resolve the spam issue.

Unfortunately, spam is here to stay. As moderators, it is difficult to catch everything the second it appears, which is why it helps us when forum members use the "report post" option.

What this does is send out an email to each moderator advising them of the improper post. What we are then able to do is click directly on the link to the thread provided in the email, where we can then deal with the problem, be it spam, or whatever other issues come up in a thread.

To answer your question ( the person who asked if anything was being done, you know who u are! )
I have been checking here periodically thoughout the day, during my lunches and after work when I get home, deleting and permanently banning every spam bot that pops up here. A few will escape us as we cant be here continously 24 hours a day, and it may take us a bit to get to it, but trust me, it WILL be dealt with.

There are measures that can be taken to prevent some spam, but all in all, it is just something we have to put up with. For your part, please "report post".

I want to send a thank you to all of you who have been regularly reporting bad posts, you are making things much easier for us as well as helping us to deal with things a little quicker and more efficiently.

Just a reminder, posting a comment in a spam thread doesnt indicate to us that its spam.

I am honestly doing the best I can, between a full time job and two kids, to help keep this place running smoothly as I am sure the rest of the mods are doing as well.

Thanks again to all of you that have been reporting these threads!

IJ

 

Thanks IndianaJoan, for this and for your efforts generally.

Cheers,
Rob

 

Thank you Robert. I know its frustrating to see that stuff, it about drives me insane when I drop in to see how things are going and I have to sit and delete/ban a bunch of spam threads/bot accounts instead of interacting with the community.

Now that the holidays are over, I am looking forward to things slowing down greatly and I am really hoping to spend some more time here doing some good critiquing and reading rather than spending all my time getting rid of spam hehe

Sorry that you guys have to tolerate that junk

 

I'd like to nominate myself as a spam moderator if there is such a thing?

That way the work is not on one member doing all the work.

 

A couple of the major advert companies have signed new deals with a number of small business websites--mostly ones that peddle drugs and porn. Forum posts are their new favorite target--it is the consensus of those in the spam business that people will click any link in a forum. I'm not sure if they're dumb, or if they think we are.

 

Basically LIke Lpsider and Indianjoan have said just ignore the spam as though its not there Yeah sure it is annouying but if we all ignore it, it shouldn't bother us.




~Raven.

 

This shouldn't be to difficult (in theory) and I'll have a look at vB and see if i can find the code that'll need changing for you.
But until then I have a little suggestion that might help a little with the problem. If you are getting the same spam over and over with the same links you can use the word filter on the domain name to change it to something useless to these people.
I can't promise it'll get rid of them, but it will make there efforts pointless until the posts can get deleted as they won't get the benifits of anyone clicking the link (it won't point to them) as well as not getting noted by the SE's.

 

Why not have a comment verification feature? At first people will find it irritating to have to type out the random code with every new thread posted, but they'll eventually conform. If not, kill 'em!

 

It would appear that almost all the posts going under the Short Stories general folder are Spam. Crap about Ikea, Viagra and the like. Many apologies if in fact these are real, rhetoric-based, post-modern literary opera, but somehow I doubt they are.
If I report the threads do we get them barred or something?

 

It would appear that almost all the posts going under the Short Stories general folder are Spam. Crap about Ikea, Viagra and the like. Many apologies if in fact these are real, rhetoric-based, post-modern literary opera, but somehow I doubt they are.
If I report the threads do we get them barred or something?

 

How does one go about reporting a thread? I've looked about for some sort of 'Report' option to select but coulnd't find one?

 

The should be a red and white Icon in the corner of your screen hover your curser over it then click on it, that will send a report to myself and all the other moderators







~Raven.

 

Thanks, not being logged in was the problem!

 

I have reported 3 or 4 spam threads now, I only bothered reporting the porn ones, as there are younger members present who may be offended. What is supposed to happen to them? Are the spam drones (pr whatever) simply barred, or should the threads get removed also, because currently they haven't been?

 

Ive reported many sites and links
BUT NONE HAVE BEEN DEALT WITH!
where are you mods?

 

The Mods here have been doing their best, like everything it takes time.
All you can do is keep reporting these posts as they arise and give the mods and admin some time to get around to removing these posts, they have very big workloads and probably recieve numerous pm's every day in regards to a lot of different things, just give them time and keep reporting and I am sure they will get around to it as soon as they can.

Ariella

 

Spam is an issue that every forum faces. This forum deals with it far more effectively and efficiently than many others.

It would be a more than a full time job for a moderator to police the forum, watching every post as it comes up and immediately dealing with it if it's spam (ie active seeking and coverage 24/7). Nobody has that kind of time.

As the mods have said, report the spam and then ignore it until it disappears.

Terry

 

I'm on multiple forums, Terry, and I've only come across one that's worse than this for clearing out spam. The management here are anything but effective at dealing with it. Spam posts over a week old is not the sign of a healthy forum.

Cheers,
Rob

 

Rob,

I guess I don't go to the areas of the forum here where spam is prevalent (Generally, I only stay in the upper two sections, and not the crit sections). I can tell you from being an admin at a forum, and moderator at another, that it is something I deal with daily. I know of several forums I visted that simply gave up rather than put in hoop after hoop for members to be able to post, or to individually screen new members, and/or having to go continually go in and delete posts and members, block ISPs, etc.

Some of it is the forum software that more effectively inhibits spammers, and a host of other factors.

Whatever the case, I've seen worse, far worse.

Terry

 

I agree I've seen far worse, therefore well done mods!

 

I think that's a bad idea. The only thing that would do with spam is delay it by three days, hardly a solution. Plus you'd be limiting people's ability to write which, for a forum dedicated to writing, is probably not a good thing.

 

I disagree. If it's a human spammer and not a bot it could be a deterrent. Remember predators attack the easy target. If one has to register and then wait a whole three days to post, then spamming this site becomes a three day process, not a 3 minute process, and spammers would move on. It even might interfere with the bots as well. They might not be programmed to wait or something.

And yes this is a writing site, but reading is just as essential. And having a whole 3 days to read previous posts might prevent repetition of belabored topics